May 24, 1953: Stories of emotional returns to Pittsburgh are abundant in the Post-Gazette archives. So are images capturing those moments of reunion and the faces that once lost hope of seeing one another. The pictures depict embraces, which before seemed so unlikely, and expressions that glow with a newfound belief that miracles happen and that the worst fears are past. These photographs inspire a response: a smile, a quiet cheer or maybe even a tear.
A story and images of The Rev. Paul Ubinger’s return are examples.
Father Ubinger was a Pittsburgh priest who, for almost 30 years, served as a missionary in China. In 1950, the Iron Curtain rang down and the Chinese government captured and jailed him in Uanling, Honan Province, where he was stationed. Father Ubinger’s arrest was a deliberate step by Chinese Communists to discredit priesthood and show their stance against U.S. missionaries in their country.
Very little was known about The Rev. Ubinger’s condition in jail at the time. Two years later, when he was finally released, he described his time in captivity as “two years in he-l-l” and detailed the torture and unfair trials he had been subjected to.
Father Ubinger was not the only one who suffered through those days, although he may have suffered the most. He did live to see the day of his release. One of his closest relatives and a soulmate, Miss Magdalene Ubinger, did not. She had never gotten a chance to witness her nephew’s return.”Last word Miss Magdalene Ubinger heard from her missionary-nephew in China was an Easter greeting,” her obituary read a year before Rev. Ubinger’s release,”among her last prayers was a plea for the safe-keeping of the captive priest.”
Miss Ubinger helped her nephew through when he made his career choice. A prominent educator for almost 50 years, she served as his mentor and followed with pride Father Ubinger’s work in China. He helped operate a Christian school there and, according to one of the relatives, “the correspondence between the pair read like a schoolmaster’s holiday.”
There is a photo in the Ubinger file in the PG archives showing Father Ubinger with his aunt Magdalene — the one before the tragic imprisonment. Magdalene was not there with the family greeting with enthusiasm Rev. Ubinger upon arrival in Pittsburgh. Being there was her only wish that was not meant to come true.
